Worship Gear - Vol. 6

In our last meeting, I started a down a detour of the signal path through my effects pedals.  I covered the compression, overdrive and distortion units.  This time around I want to talk a little about effects used to create textures.  I prefer chorus, delay and phase for this purpose.

When possible, I like to run this type of effect through an effects loop on my amp.  I like this type of set up to give my tone more of a studio quality.  Many times running delay and modulation effects through the front of the amp just don't sound quite proper.

The first effect that my signal runs through is an MXR EVH Phase 90.  This is a pretty cool little unit, not just because it is painted up like Van Halen’s guitar, but because it gives you access to both of the classic sounds of the Phase 90 with the press of a button.  The controls on this pedal are pretty simple, a single knob that controls the speed of the phase “swirl”, an on / off button and a “script” button.  The script button changes the character of the pedal from the brash, modern in your face sound of the “block” logo Phase 90 in normal mode with the button up; to the smoother, more reserved swirling sound of the classic ‘70’s orange pedal with the script logo that has graced so many recordings over the years (including some of Eddie’s).  I prefer the classic sound of the script mode.  So, I tend to leave mine set with the script button pushed in and the speed control set between 9:00 and 10:00 for a nice, slow swirling effect that works well in context with many contemporary worship tunes.

We then move onto the Visual Sound H2O Version 2.  This is another two in one pedal housing an analog delay with controls on the right side and a chorus with controls on the left.  For the delay side, Visual Sound describes this as a “hybrid digital and analog circuit that allows for long delay times and warm, natural repeats”.  I tend to leave this set for a slapback style echo, but this pedal has a wide range of adjustments available from three knobs and a small black rocker switch.  For my settings on this effect, I start with their recommended settings listed as “Classic Slapback” in the user manual with the echo time set at 9:00, repeats around 10:00 (VS recommends 12:00) and effect level at 12:00. The delay time switch is set to “long”.  This adds a nice subtle, spacious reverb quality that gives a touch of studio polish to the sound.  I use this mostly with my Mesa Boogie Stiletto through the effects loop, but I have come to like the sound of it over a spring reverb unit like the one in my Soldano.

On the chorus side, Visual Sound describes this as an analog delay with digital control using bucket-brigade style chips that are designed to pass the sound on from one chip to the next.  This style of chorus has a smooth sound that rounds off the higher frequencies on the regenerations in a way that feels natural.  I also set the chorus to a fairly minimal effect, starting with the manufacturers recommended settings labeled as “70s Chorus” in the owner’s manual.  The speed control is set to 10:00 (VS recommends 2:00); width is at 9:00 and delay time on 12:00 (VS recommends 5:00).  The “Normal/Lush” switch is set to normal.

The next pedal in line it a tc electronic Flashback delay.  This is a multi function digital delay with 11 delay types and the availability of downloading custom tone presets from tc called Toneprints.  My favorite delay types are the 2290, tape and slapback.  I generally set the unit for a slapback type delay with a short delay time and only one or two reflections.  The difference in the three different modes using similar setups is differing degrees of clarity.  Using the 2290 and Slap modes are cleaner sounding with the 2290 delay type emulates the classic 2290 rack unit that set the standard for digital delay back in 1985.  This is a very clean transparent delay that doesn't color your tone significantly.  The slap type adds a little more warmth to my ears, or could used to simulate a clean reverb unit.  The tape setting does something a little something interesting when you turn down the delay time and feedback controls.  Similar to an actual tape delay unit the warble in the tape mechanism adds a modulation to the signal making for an interesting reverb like effect that adds a little movement to the sound.  Very nice sounding and useful.

After the Flashback is my newest pedal, the Strymon Flint.  I've always been a big fan of plate style reverb to add a little sheen to my sound.  The Flint does this almost perfectly for me.  The Flint is pretty simple pedal with two effects built in and available independently.  the right side of the pedal controls the reverb with three modes available through a selector switch including spring, plate and hall reverbs.  All three are very musical and accurate sounding for a digital pedal.  The left side controls a tremolo effect.  A tremolo effect changes the volume of the signal.  Depending on the intensity setting, the effect can be be subtle with slight variations, or fairly dramatic to the point of creating a stutter effect by shutting the volume nearly off at its low point.  My favorite setting is the power tube mode set for a subtle rhythmic throb.

This combination of pedals gives me a lot of flexibility and tone that is some of the best I've had thus far.
These particular effects are pretty standard fare in worship music, today.  When used in the proper context to serve the song, they can be beneficial.  If not, they can be a distraction to you congregation and may hinder their response.

Next time, I’ll cover the utility pieces that fill in and help everything work as smoothly and consistently as possible.

God Bless,
D. K. Sears
Guitarist / Technical Advisor – Landmark Baptist Worship (www.lbcohio.com)
Founder / Lead Designer / Tone Consultant – Crucible Guitar Works
(www.facebook.com/crucibleguitarworks) (Twitter:  @CrucibleGuitars)
Author - Worship Gear

Worship Gear - Vol. 5

This month kicks off our series on effects on my pedal board here at Worship Gear.  First, I will admit that I have become somewhat of an addict when it comes to pedals.  Dirt (overdrive, distortion and boost) pedals in particular have become a big thing for me over the last few years.  There are so many different flavors on the market, it really seems that there is something (or several something’s) for almost any and every taste.

There are other options out there and I have a few others that I will expound upon later, but I want to stick to my current rig and its attributes, good or bad, for use in worship.  This time around, I’ll go through about the first half of the pedal board and discuss the second half or so next time.

 

The first thing my signal sees is the Barber Electronics Tone Press.  Someone once told me, the best way to use compression is to use as little as possible.  It can be like a strong spice at times and overtake the natural sound of the rest of your rig.  I have the Tone Press set to boost the signal strength from my single coil guitars just enough that I don’t need to change amp settings drastically when switching between humbucker and single coil guitars.  I took the setting that they listed in their manual called “Magic Dust for Single Coils” and modified just slightly for my needs.  The volume knob is set at about 1:00 on the dial, Blend is set for about 11:00 and the Sustain control is set close 12:00 (all settings reference a relationship to a clock).  The Tone Press is a very smooth sounding compressor that does not seem to muddy up the sound of a guitar like many compressors that I have tried.

From the Tone Press, I have been using three different pedals to provide different level of overdrive and / or distortion.

The first pedal in line is the Rockett Designs Blue Note OD.  This pedal has a very smooth tone in my opinion.  The sound is very transparent in that it does not drastically change the natural sound of your guitar and amp.  It really just smooth gain and volume boost as you dial it in from the controls.  They do include a FAT control which does filter in some low mids to add a little girth to your overall tone.  The HOT switch boosts the gain, volume and adds a touch to the low mids as well.  I love this pedal with most of my guitars, but it especially goes well with Strats, Teles and lower output, less aggressive humbuckers.  It even does well with my high output DiMarzio equipped guitars, but it does require a little adjustment to the tone and FAT knobs in my opinion between the two.

The second pedal in my overdrive section is a Wampler Dual Fusion.  The Dual Fusion is actually set up as two pedals in one housing.  Based on two of their existing pedals the Euphoria Overdrive and the Paisley Drive, it is designed to be used with either channel singly or with both channels cascaded together.  There are several options available to set up how the pedal runs in stacked or cascaded modes.  I am using it in conjunction with a bypass loop switch that I describe later and this allows me to choose each channel independently and with both loops engaged, it runs channel one into channel two.    Channel one is labeled Vintage.  This is probably my favorite of the two channels.  I use it set with the Smooth / Fat switch in the Smooth position and it produces a nice crunch tone for rhythm playing that is not grainy sounding and tends to clean up a little with a lighter touch.  Channel two is labeled Modern.  This channel is very smooth almost like the Blue Note overdrive listed above.  I use it with the Throaty / Natural switch in the Natural position and it has a nice boosted lead tone that actually takes a healthy dose of the gain knob to get it to break up much.  This pedal has been great with my humbucker equipped guitars, especially.  It takes to single coils very well, also.

The third and last pedal in this section is the Wampler SLOstortion.  This one is just plain fun.  If you like your high gain with a little ’80’s flavor, this is the pedal.  It was designed to be very much like the Soldano SLO-100 in sound, but keep it more manageable in both price and volume.  Being a huge Soldano fan, I really like this pedal.  It gives me a nice high gain amp sound through any of my amps and it’s different from the typical Mesa Boogie Triple Rec sound that everyone seems to have these days.  To me it’s more organic, while still being preamp drive distortion the Soldano sound to me tends to bridge the gap between the crunchy, singing vintage Marshall and the all out Triple Rec rage.  I don’t tend to use this one much in worship services as I think it can be somewhat over the top, but it is great for hard rock and metal covers or just about anything where you would want that massive high gain overdrive.

All of these pedals are mounted a Pedaltrain pedal board frame with a hardshell case.  As alluded to above, all of these pedals are routed into a One Control Iguana Tail loop switcher.  This allows me to keep the switches along the front of my pedal board where it is easier to make changes without accidentally bumping a knob reaching over a pedal to engage a pedal.  It also has 9 volt outputs to supply power to all of the pedals (no fussing with batteries) which can be powered by a Visual Sound One Spot as well as a dedicated output to run the guitar signal to a tuner.  The other loops are muted when the tuner switch is engaged.  The main output of this goes to the front of my amplifier through a Dunlop Volume X pedal that I will cover in a later post.

Remember, our responsibility as electric guitarists is to serve the song and create a setting that helps our congregations become engaged with the word of God as it is being presented in the songs.  While it is fun to grab the volume and gain knobs and crank them up (and it is FUN!), it is not always appropriate.  Worship is more about our lifestyle, than it is about the music.  God is glorified more when we are serving and loving others than when we cater to ourselves.

God Bless,

D.K. Sears

Guitarist / Technical Advisor – Landmark Baptist Worship (www.lbcohio.com)

Founder / Lead Designer / Tone Consultant – Crucible Guitar Works

(www.facebook.com/crucibleguitarworks) (Twitter:  @CrucibleGuitars)

Author - Worship Gear